The present invention relates to a method for creating browsing data of an information searching apparatus which is realized on an information processor such as a work station or a personal computer handling various data such as a text, spread sheet, graph, bitmap, video, audio, etc. and a method for searching information and particularly to a method for creating browsing data which can easily create browsing data and a method for searching information suited to play a part of video and audio. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method for searching information which imposes little burden on the hardware even when large capacity data is searched.
In an information processor such as a work station or a personal computer, data such as a text, document, spread sheet, graph, bitmap, or graphic which is created by an application program is stored in a memory such as a disk as a file (hereinafter these data are called xe2x80x9capplication dataxe2x80x9d). By designating the name of a file or selecting an icon corresponding to the file (which is expressed as a small picture so as to make the content thereof easily understandable intuitively), an operator can designate the file to be accessed. In this case, the operator designates the necessary file by associating the file name or the icon picture with the file content.
However, a general icon comprises a picture determined for each application which is used for creation of a file and the file name, so that it is difficult to grasp the content of the file fully only by these pieces of information.
In the art (the prior art 1) described in the specification of Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 5-33020(1993), as data for grasping the content of each file (hereinafter, this data is referred to as xe2x80x9cbrowsing dataxe2x80x9d and grasping the content of a file by referring to this data is referred to as xe2x80x9cbrowsingxe2x80x9d), reduced image data of the file content is created and the image data is displayed as an icon. By doing this, without invoking the application program creating the file, the content of the application data can be grasped.
In the art (the prior art 2) described in the specification of Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 5-170021(1993), browsing data is created by performing an image operation for displaying the application data on the display and moving it or by using data to be outputted to a printer. By doing this, without changing the application program at all, data corresponding to the unique data of the application program can be created. Even if application data extends over a plurality of pages, the content can be grasped by flipping pages.
On the other hand, recently, audio data and video data are often handled on a computer as the disk capacity increases and the CPU performance improves. These data are played with audio along the time axis unlike conventional data, so that the content thereof cannot be grasped only by display on the display unit like a conventional still image. Therefore, when these time-based data are selected for conventional browsing, the content thereof is indicated by playing the whole or a part of the data.
The aforementioned prior art 1 is a basic art of browsing and the aforementioned prior art 2 is intended to allow a user to create browsing data more simply in addition to the prior art 1. However, in the prior art 2, to create browsing data from the screen to be displayed on, it is necessary to display the application data to be displayed on the display screen beforehand. Therefore, to create browsing data in batch immediately before browsing, it is necessary to invoke the application first and display each application data on the screen, so that a problem arises that it is troublesome.
In the prior art 2, to create browsing data from data to be outputted to a printer, it is premised that a printing function is added to the application. As a result, a problem arises that browsing data cannot be created from application data having no printing function.
In the prior art 2, when browsing data is created, the browsing data is always saved as bitmap data. When data of the same content is saved, the amount of bitmap data is larger than that of text data or graphic data. As a result, when browsing data of many files is created, the total of amounts of browsing data increases. Therefore, a problem arises that to save browsing data, a large capacity memory is necessary.
In the prior art 2, when the content of a file is read by flipping pages, there is no upper limit to the number of pages of browsing data to be created. As a result, when application data has a large amount of pages, browsing data also has a large amount of pages and the amount of browsing data increases. Therefore, a problem arises that to save browsing data, a large capacity memory is necessary.
When the whole of time-based data is played for browsing it and the playing time of the data is extremely long, a problem arises that unless the playing time of one data ends, the next data cannot be browsed, and the browsing efficiency lowers, and the operability gets worse. On the other hand, when only a part of the data is played, it is difficult to automatically extract the appropriate characteristic part of the data, so that it may be considered to be difficult to search for the target data efficiently.
The present invention is intended to solve the aforementioned problems and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for creating browsing data of an information searching apparatus which can create browsing data simply by using the existing art so as to create the browsing data.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for searching information for minimizing the capacity of a memory necessary to save browsing data of a large amount of files even when the browsing data is created because the format of browsing data to be created can be changed.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method for searching information for browsing video and audio by designating only the part to be browsed.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method for searching information for minimizing the capacity of a memory necessary to save browsing data by having a maximum value of the capacity of browsing data even if the original application data is large.
To accomplish the above objects, in the browsing data creation method of the information searching apparatus of the present invention having a data storage means for storing data to be searched for, an input means for inputting an instruction to the information searching apparatus, a browsing data creation means for creating browsing data from the aforementioned browsing data, and an output means for outputting the aforementioned browsing data, the constitution of the present invention is that the present invention has an input means for selecting the format of data to be acquired when data in a specific format is acquired from certain data so as to create browsing data and creates the aforementioned browsing data from the aforementioned data to be searched for in accordance with the data format selected by the input means.
More in detail, in the browsing data creation method of the information searching apparatus, the means for creating the browsing data from the data to be searched for in accordance with the data format selected by the input means for selecting the data format to be acquired is a means for creating a compound document or a means for creating a clip board.
To accomplish the above objects, the constitution of the present invention relating to the browsing data creation method of the information searching apparatus is that when the browsing data is data requiring a lot of time for play, the method divides the browsing data in page units and instructs output for searching in page units by the input means.
More in detail, in the information searching method of the information searching apparatus, the aforementioned division in page units is obtained by dividing the playing time of the browsing data equally.
In detail, in the information searching method of the information searching apparatus, the aforementioned division in page units is obtained by allocating pages on the assumption that the playing time of the browsing data is constant.
To accomplish the above objects, another constitution of the present invention relating to the browsing data creation method of the information searching apparatus is that when the browsing data is data requiring a lot of time for play and an emblem for instructing the output means when the browsing data is played is displayed, the browsing data is played when the emblem is instructed by the input means.
Next, to accomplish the above objects, another constitution of the present invention relating to the browsing data creation method of the information searching apparatus is that the information searching apparatus has a means for inputting the upper limit of the number of pages created by the browsing data creation means when the browsing data can be searched by page and the inputted upper limit of the number of pages is the upper limit of the number of pages of the created browsing data.
Another constitution relating to the browsing data creation method of the information searching apparatus of the present invention is that the information searching apparatus has a data storage means for storing browsing data and when the browsing data can be searched by page, the created upper limit of the number of pages of the browsing data is determined by the capacity which can be allocated so as to store the browsing data of the data storage means.
According to the present invention, to create browsing data in the data format selected by a user from the unique data of the application program, the compound document program is used. Therefore, when the application data created by the application can be handled by the compound document program, the operation for displaying the application in the window one by one is not necessary and furthermore, browsing data can be created even from application data having no printing function. The format for browsing data to be created can be selected, so that browsing data in the data format which is considered to be most suitable to browsing by a user can be created. Furthermore, even when browsing data of many files are created, the data format for reducing the amount of browsing data can be selected and the capacity of a disk necessary for saving browsing data can be saved.
A concept of a virtual page is provided for audio and video data and data can be browsed in page units, so that audio and video data can be browsed by a method equivalent to that for document data having a plurality of pages.
Therefore, it is easy to understand by a user and only a desired portion can be played, so that a user interface which is easy to use can be provided.
Audio and video data are played only when icons indicating play thereof are instructed, so that only a portion where audio and video data are to be watched and heard can be played simply.
Since an upper limit is provided to the number of pages which can be registered as browsing data, even if the amount of application data is large, the amount of application data can be prevented from increasing excessively and the capacity of a disk necessary to save browsing data can be saved.